[(JD)]

Daylight Saving Changes in 2007 and the Impacts

by Jeff Regan

In 1999, there was much concern about the impact of software's inability to switch from years starting with 19 to years starting with 20. A lot of effort was put in place to virtually eliminate the issue by the time the year 2000 came along.

There is a new risk for many businesses that has some similarities to the Y2K bug, but is not actually a bug at all.

Last year, in an attempt to reduce energy consumption, the US Congress, in section 110 of the "Energy Policy Act of 2005" announced plans to move the start and ending dates of Daylight Saving time to give more light in the evenings for a longer period of the year. All of Canada (except the regions that never change their timezone at all during the year) will follow the U.S. plan as well. Bermuda has announced a similar plan.

In 2007 (and the years following), Daylight Saving Time will start on the second Sunday of March instead of the first Sunday of April. It will end on the first Sunday in November, instead of the last Sunday in October.

Businesses, and individuals who use any hardware or software that is sensitive to date and time transactions, and utilizes a local time zone, or interacts with systems that use a local time zone (versus the universal UTC time zone used for many world wide business transactions) could be impacted by these changes in Daylight Saving Time.On your typical computer server or PC, the automatic decision to change to Daylight Saving time is generally made by the underlying Operating System, such as Microsoft Windows or Unix. However, applications often also perform date and time manipulation, and may make a similar automatic decision, or use date/time calculations in other ways.

is GMT going to be affected? has this is the basis for time scale worldwide ie london being point zero, or zero hour, also doing this will screw up maritime navigation worldwide will it not?, for what 1 more hour of daylight? tis pure madness, no wonder there is worry of something going wrong, they should just leave it how it is, but then i am bias being a brit lol

[(JD)]

hey brits don't have the market on bias cornered! To save energy I bet they forgot to compute the amount of midnight oil ppl are burning figuring out if this will affect them and and how to correct it!

we brits might not have the market cornered on bias sky but we do have a very good handle on it lol,

i wonder how long it will be before they change the leap years to a odd number to gain an extra day someware along the line? mmm strokes hairy chin and ponders

[lenjan]

If you have a Windows PC they've already issued the patch to update your system. If you have automatic download turned on, your computer is all set, and if you don't, you can d/l the patch.

[Perna]

I heard about the March but not the November; that will put my birthday in the end of October and my horoscope time will be off an hour for future generations wondering. LOL!

My birth certificate is wrong and now this; good thing I don't have any kids of my own so my great grandkids get confused doing genealogy. :-)

[Perna]

No, you Zulu's still have the "correct" time; here in the States not all states even use daylight savings; it's crazy. But everything is related to GMT. It doesn't have to make sense.

[Rhapsody]

PER - Microsoft.......... (03/05/07)

Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center
Beginning in 2007, daylight saving time (DST) will be extended in the United States. DST will start on March 11, 2007, which is three weeks earlier than usual, and it will end on November 4, 2007, which is one week later than usual. This results in a new DST period that is four weeks longer than in previous years. Unless certain updates are applied to your computer, the time zone settings for your computer's system clock may be incorrect during this four-week period. In particular, you must make sure that both your Windows operating system and your calendar programs are updated.

Do I have to update my computer?
Home users: If you use Windows Vista or have Automatic Updates turned on, you may not be affected by the change in daylight saving time. If you want to confirm, follow the steps in the Daylight Saving Time Update Guide below.

IT professionals and IT managers:The Daylight Saving Time Update Guide below will quickly lead you to KB articles and downloads for the products you specify in the guide.

Daylight Saving Time Update Guide:

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst

[Rhapsody]

P.S.

Windows XP SP1 users are on their own, since that first service pack is no longer supported by Microsoft. Windows 2000 users, however, can download a tool to update the clock manually. You'll find more information and links to the downloads on Microsoft's daylight saving time support page at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_topissues#A6a.

Windows Mobile users can go to a similar support page, with links to patches http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305056.

If you're using Vista and Microsoft Outlook Office 2007, you've got nothing to worry about. If you're running Windows XP SP2, with automatic updates turned on, a patch has already been pushed to your system.

[(JD)]

hey mellors, you have a hairy chin? that's by choice, right?

must work pretty well, you think cleverly

[(JD)]

I've decided to just run with anything for a month off an hour... and my car clock was wiped out from the AAA battery guy, so I won't have that confusion anyway. Wonder if my just-returned notebook (from updating and repair)was covered for that too that would be nice.